Crazy cannibal finds more screen success

"Hello, Clarice..." For anyone who's seen Silence of the Lambs, that, and a plethora of other phrases uttered by the unnerving Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), have become oft-quoted phrases in our pop culture lexicon.\nHopkins once again reprises his role as the murderously brilliant Dr. Lecter, but Red Dragon mixes things up by taking place before Silence of the Lambs. Ideally, this is supposed to put us into uncharted territory regarding Lecter's motivations, but the plot of Red Dragon closely mirrors that of Silence of the Lambs, with FBI profiler Will Graham (Edward Norton) taking the place of Agent Starling. \nGraham, who retired from the FBI after being seriously wounded on the job, is coaxed into assisting on the investigation of a pair of grisly murders that have taken place in the South. The murderer, dubbed "The Tooth Fairy" (Ralph Fiennes) by the media, is set to kill again in less than three weeks, if his pattern holds. Pressed for time and in an effort to save lives, Graham must resort to pumping Lecter for information. But as anyone familiar with the series knows, one does not simply ask Dr. Lecter for help; there are always mind games and the requisite quid pro quo. \nAnd, really, that's the problem; as competent and entertaining a movie as Red Dragon is, we're not really surprised by anything that Lecter does, because we've seen it all before in the two other films in the series. An FBI agent comes to Lecter for help and gets the runaround; Lecter knows exactly what's going on after briefly reading the evidence files, but plays mind games with everyone involved. \nNevertheless, Red Dragon is still a very entertaining film and worth a look just to see Hopkins and Norton get into it with one another, as their chemistry is astounding. Visually, the film is impressive and very reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, but without all the self-important visual flair present in Hannibal. Red Dragon is also much less gory than Hannibal, and it reins in the somewhat over-the-top characterization of Lecter that marred that same film. All in all, Red Dragon is a worthy film, if somewhat derivative.